During an appearance on the “Going Off Track” podcast, SKID ROW bassist Rachel Bolan reflected on the more aggressive sound of the band’s second album, 1991’s “Slave To The Grind”, compared to its predecessor, 1989’s “Skid Row”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It was very organic, the heaviness, just shifting to that heavier side. Our biggest mistake, and I’m saying ‘our’ — I disagreed with the decision, so I’m just putting that on record — was releasing ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single, the song ‘Slave To The Grind’. Radio didn’t touch it. Our male fanbase went up. The female fanbase dried up. They all but disappeared. And then we took PANTERA on the road, and it was mainly guys at the show. But we lovePANTERA. But anyway, with ‘Slave To The Grind’, we came out with [the first single] ‘Monkey Business’. It went breaker in two weeks, so we had a certified hit. We’re on a fuckin roll now. Radio jumped on, before we even released the second single, or even thought of a second single, the radio jumped on ‘Quicksand Jesus’. And I was, like, ‘This is great. This is awesome.’ I go, ‘This is our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.’ I mean, the song is six minutes long. And I’m not saying it’s as good as ‘Bohemian’; you know what I mean. I’m, like, ‘This is great.’ Somebody — I think our manager at the time — said, ‘We shouldn’t release that song second.’ And we had someone in the band that agreed with him. And I’m, like, ‘But the radio’s already playing it. Don’t we see what’s going on?’ So someone came up with the fantastic idea — ’cause Snake [SKID ROW guitarist Dave Sabo] and I were the radio guys; we would do all the interviews; we did the rounds — ‘why don’t you and Snake start calling and ask them not to play it, until we decide on a single?’ I’m, like, ‘Are you serious?’ ‘Yeah.’ So, I did as I was told and we called [and literally asked radio stations] to not play that song because we were coming with a different single. The responses we got were exactly what I thought. I had one guy yell at me, one PD [program director] yell at me. I forget which market it was, but it was a major market; I think it was out near Chicago. He goes, ‘Are you out of your fucking mind?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, I think so.’ And then we released ‘Slave To The Grind’ [as a single]. And radio wasn’t only, ‘We’re not playing this. It’s too heavy for our listenership.’ They were also, like, ‘We’re not playing it. And fuck you.’ And then we tried again with ‘Quicksand Jesus’. Everyone was, like, ‘Too late, too late.’ And that was pretty much it for radio for that record. We had videos, we had ‘Wasted Time’ and ‘Slave’ and ‘Monkey’. And what else did we have? Was that it for that record? I forget. But, yeah, that was a huge mistake. And I remember being in that hotel room [and saying], ‘We can’t release ‘Slave To The Grind’ as a single.’ And I remember our manager at the time going, ‘You guys can do whatever the fuck you want at this point.’ Big mistake. Huge mistake. But, yeah, that that was our biggest mistake. I just remember seeing it in the room and seeing a few guys thinking it was a great idea, and I’m, like, ‘It’s not a great idea. This is not a great idea.’ And I just got ignored, and that was it. And it was done. But I think that record would have sold a lot more had we stayed the course and let someone dictate for us, in a good way. But it is what it is.”
Bolan went on to say that he felt his opinions were listened to enough at the time considering that he was one of SKID ROW‘s main songwriters. “It’s my song. Snake and I, it was our band,” he said. “The dynamics within were really strange for me. Because, like I said, that manager was treating me like I was on a need-to-know basis. And that was not cool. That was not cool. And a few times I lost my shit. And then it is what it is. So Snake and I handle everything now — everything goes through us.”
Released in June 1991, “Slave To The Grind” quickly soared to platinum status and became the first LP to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart since it began using Nielsen Music data in May of 1991.
“Slave To The Grind” spent a week at No. 1 and sold more than two million copies in the U.S. alone.
Back in 2015, Bolan discussed the “Slave To The Grind” songwriting process with The Aquarian. “I think a lot of people expected us to become formulaic with the way we approached the first record and we had no interest in doing that,” he said. “And I’m so proud of all of us for being on the same page with that. I’m not saying that it would have been easy from the creative standpoint to sort of go along the lines of the first record, because it had some pretty big songs as far as radio goes, but we were in a different mindset. We had gone from barely leaving the state of New Jersey to seeing the world that very few people are privileged with.”
In a 2019 interview with Billboard, former SKID ROW singer Sebastian Bach stated about “Slave To The Grind”‘s more aggressive approach: “The times were getting heavier. The bands that didn’t get heavier in ’91 really lost fans quick. Looking in hindsight, the whole scene was changing to a darker thing. If we had gotten lighter than the first SKID ROW record in ’91, I don’t think we’d be doing this interview right now.”
Back in 2013, Bolan told Sweden’s Metalshrine that “Slave To The Grind” was one of his favorite SKID ROW albums. “It was our only No. 1 album, but that doesn’t come into play as far as being one of my favorites,” he explained. “We did a completely 180 sound-wise. We were always a little heavier than the bands we got lumped in with, and when ‘Slave To The Grind’ came out, it was, like, ‘Okay, these guys are more than a hair metal band. They’re a hard rock band.'”
Source: blabbermouth.net
